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Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Groner told former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick today that he has to pay $319,000 of his $1 million restitution to the City of Detroit in the next 90 days. He must pay $79,000 of that within 30 days, and another $240,000 within 90 days.

Kilpatrick pleaded guilty in 2008 to obstruction of justice.

Groner also ordered Kilpatrick to pay the entire $1 million in four years instead of the initially agreed upon five years.

Groner’s decision came with a scolding. The judge said Kilpatrick had lied about his finances, and had failed to disclose that he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans. That was a misrepresentation of his ability to pay his restitution, Groner said.

“You pled guilty, and you agreed to pay $1 million in resitution,” Groner said to Kilpatrick. If Kilpatrick had not asked the court to decrease his monthly restitution payments from $6,000 to $3,000, he could have carried on according to the agreement he made with the court.

In addition to the financial requirements ordered by Groner, the judge also ordered Kilpatrick to make weekly reports to the court by telephone. He ordered Kilpatrick’s probation to be moved from Texas, where Kilpatrick is living and working, to Michigan. All of Kilpatrick’s travel must be approved by the court.

If Kilpatrick fails to comply, he will have to return to court for a probation violation hearing, Groner said. Kilpatrick served 99 days in jail after his 2008 plea. He stepped down from office, was disbarred, and was prohibited from running for office for five years.

See the Associated Press story on the Michigan Lawyers Weekly home page here. Read the order here.

A few summers ago, I met a first year law student and her mother. Her mother asked me if I had any advice for her daughter as she was trying to figure out what kind of law she wanted to practice. Having already been an attorney for six years and seen the legal industry in Michigan begin its decline, I jokingly said, “Quit now, before you owe too much money.”

Her mother was aghast. She pulled me aside a week later when the daughter wasn’t there and went all Gunnery Sgt. Hartman on me, telling me I ripped her daughter’s heart out and stomped on her dreams.1

Anyway, scouring the interwebs for legal trends from across the country has taught me that the legal industry’s downturn is happening everywhere, not just in Michigan. In New York, for instance, BigLaw layoffs are so bad that even the brown-nosers top-performing associates are concerned for their futures.

Even associates who find plenty to do worry that outstanding performance is no longer enough to protect them, said Daniel Lukasik, a Buffalo lawyer who runs an information and outreach Web site called Lawyers With Depression, adding that his traffic is up 25 percent since June, to about 25,000 visitors a month.

Mr. Lukasik recently received a call from a man who said he was a fifth-year associate in Manhattan who complained that he felt expendable even though he was a top performer.

“He said to me, ‘What more do I have to do?’ ” Mr. Lukasik recalled. “ ‘I’m billing a large amount of hours, I’m a team player,’ but he said it’s very possible he might lose his job. And he was a Yale graduate, at a top-20 firm.”

Things are so bad that a Seton Hall law professor thinks that there are only three reasons why anyone should even consider going to law school in this economy.

Yesterday’s New York Timesarticle about the depreciating value of a law degree is presently number one on the Times’ “most emailed” list. My fervent hope is that the article is being forwarded not just to lawyers, but also to individuals who are considering whether to join a 1L class in 2010.

Because I am visiting at another law school this semester, I don’t have to attend any admissions events this spring. Yet I’ve been thinking hard about what advice I would give prospective students and this is where I’ve landed: Only go to law school next year if (1) you have always dreamed of being a lawyer; or (2) you are accepted by a very prestigious institution; or (3) you are offered a full scholarship.

She even goes as far as to advise prospective students that law school may be a baaad idea.

Of course, this year law school applications will be partly driven by the lack of opportunity costs. Graduating college students face generally dismal employment prospects regardless of what field they want to enter. But I suspect that optimism bias plays just as large a role in student decision-making. No matter what the economy, some lawyers will be wildly successful. Many prospective students are inclined to think that they will be part of this group, no matter how daunting the odds against it. On the more rational side of the analysis, it’s also true that law school historically has proven itself a relatively good place to weather out bad economic times.

What is different this time around, however, is that no one is yet sure whether the changes in legal markets and in law firms are permanent, or whether things will eventually return to what we had come to think of as normal. If you haven’t always wanted to practice law, or if you’re considering a law school that is not one of the best in the nation, or if the law school isn’t offering to pay for you to attend, my advice is to wait to see how this plays out.

Of course, everyone thinks that it’s a great career move no matter what you were planning on going into before, as if it is recession-proof. One in-state law school has even added three law schools in the last few years, pumping even more lawyers into an already crowded job market. But it brings me back to the story of the law student and her mom. The 1L did well in school and graduated, but ended up having to move to another state to work.

1 A little overdramatic? I thought so. But that’s what she said.

Nothing to see here In its never-ending quest to recycle the “Grey’s Anatomy” model into every possible scenario (“What if we remade “Grey’s Anatomy,” but in SPACE!), ABC is debuting “The Deep End” this Thursday. It follows four first year associates at a big law firm in New York as they pursue “potentially actionable relationships” with their bosses their dreams. It’s such a blatant ripoff that I’m surprised they didn’t call it “Black’s Law.” I can’t wait until they figure out how to turn the “Izzy gives her patient-boyfriend a heart attack so that he can move up the heart transplant list” storyline into the legal setting. And by “I can’t wait,” I mean for my wife to tell me about it as I pretend like I’m listening.

Man bites dog No need to count the votes: New York personal injury firm Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman wins the Academy Award for the Best Attorney Commercials Ever Made.

And because one Will Ferrell reference deserves another, they get bonus points because one of their partners looks like Ron Burgundy. Click here and go see how good he looks! (FYI, his name is David Corley).

The non-profit Areivim Philanthropic Group Inc. is suing the estate of William Davidson, former owner of the Detroit Pistons.

Areivim claims that Davidson was one of 13 donors who in 2006 pledged to contribute $5 million to the group “to establish a ‘fund for our Jewish future,'” according to the complaint, which was filed in December in Oakland County Probate Court. According to the organization, Davidson had donated $200,000 of the $5 million before his death in March of last year.

Birmingham attorneys Henry Baskin and David Mendelson are representing the New York-based Areivim.

I’ve cleared my calendar for this afternoon so I can watch online as the saga of the former mayor of Detroit unfolds.

Kwame Kilpatrick will again face Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner, who is expected to announce his decision regarding Kilpatrick’s restitution payments to the city of Detroit.

According to a story in The Detroit News, Kilpatrick has paid less than 10 percent of the $1 million he was ordered to pay as part of his sentence in the so-called text message scandal.

Kilpatrick had argued that he can’t pay the $6,000 per month as ordered by the court. But prosecutors say he’s not been forthcoming about his finances, and if he can afford pricey cars and rent in a swanky neighborhood and luxuries such as plastic surgery for his wife, he can afford to pony up even more than $6,000 per month.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order immediate closure of shipping locks near Chicago to prevent Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes.

The court rejected a request by Michigan for a preliminary injunction to close the locks temporarily while a long-term solution is sought to the threatened invasion by the ravenous fish. The one-sentence ruling didn’t explain the court’s reasoning.

Asian carp, primarily bighead and silver varieties, have been migrating up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers toward the Great Lakes for decades. They have swarmed waterways near Chicago leading to Lake Michigan.

Scientists fear that if they reach the lakes, they could disrupt the food chain and endanger the $7 billion fishery.

The biggest Asian carp can reach 4 feet in length and weigh 100 pounds while consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, the foundation of the Great Lakes food web.

Many scientists say they could starve out popular species such as trout and salmon.

They also are spooked by passing motors and often hurtle from the water, colliding with boaters forcefully enough to break bones.

Officials poisoned a section of the canal in December after discovering genetic material that suggested at least some carp might have eluded an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and could be within six miles of Lake Michigan. If so, the only other obstacles between them and the lake are shipping locks and gates.

Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said additional carp DNA — but no live fish — had been found in three different spots along the Chicago River within a mile of where it flows into Lake Michigan.

Michigan, joined by Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario, asked the high court to order the locks closed as a stopgap measure while considering a permanent separation between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin.

"While this action means that the court will not order an immediate closure of the locks … it does not mean that no action will be taken in the case," said Josh Mogerman, spokesman for the National Resources Defense Council. "There is still a significant possibility that the court will issue a decision regarding Michigan’s broader requests for action on this issue."

The state of Illinois, backed by the Obama administration, fought the proposal. They said the DNA samples weren’t sufficient evidence that the carp were on the verge of slipping into Lake Michigan, and said closing the locks would damage shipping and passenger traffic on the busy waterway.

A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald E. rosen is losing his patience. He’s ordered the City of Detroit and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to respond to discovery motions filed by Norman Yatooma, the lawyer representing the family of Tamara Greene.

Yatooma stated that the city and Kilpatrick had failed to respond or object to the discovery request.

“The time for doing so has passed,” wrote Rosen in the Jan. 15, 2010 order. He gave them seven days to respond. “…in light of the disturbing trend evidenced by Plaintiff’ several motions to compel — namely, that at least certain of the Defendants appear to be consistently failing to provide timely responses to discovery requests, despite the evident efforts of Plaintiffs’ counsel to resolve these matters cooperatively — the Court cautions the parties and their counsel that any further failures to provide timely and appropriate responses to discovery requests will be met with escalating rounds of sanctions, up to and including dismissal of claims or the entry of judgment against recalcitrant parties.”

Greene’s family alleges in a federal civil lawsuit that Detroit officials conspired to thwart the investigation into her unsolved drive-by slaying in April 2003.
Greene was rumored to have danced at a never-proven party in fall 2002 at the Manoogian Mansion.
According to the rumors, Greene, who went by the stage name Strawberry, danced for Kilpatrick and others before the mayor’s wife, Carlita, walked in and assaulted Greene.

You can’t make up stories better than this. The City of Taylor’s ongoing battle over who will serve as the city attorney is expected to heat up at tonight’s city council meeting, when (how awkward) two attorneys who claim to have the job will be present.

“Because I question defendant’s right to appellate relief while she is in contempt of the trial court’s orders, and to avoid the harsh sanction of outright dismissal, I would explore the approach of the Arizona Supreme Court in Stewart v Stewart, 91 Ariz 356 (1962), and condition the grant of any relief this Court concludes is otherwise appropriate on defendant’s compliance with the trial court’s orders.”

Exactly. The fugitive disentitlement doctrine is based on the notion that an appellate court can boot an on-the-run criminal defendant’s appeal.

The MSC is mulling whether to adopt some version of the doctrine in civil settings and has asked the parties in this hotly contested divorce case for briefs on the issue.

* * *“It cannot reasonably be disputed that, in general, senior citizens and the elderly are more susceptible to falls and injuries from falls, especially where there is some defect present in a walking surface, considering natural frailities and the loss of agility and balance that unfortunately come with age.”

that, in the context of the open and obvious danger doctrine, an objective standard is used and that the fact-finder must consider the condition of the premises, “not the condition of the plaintiff.”

But, Murphy continued, under MCL 554.139(1)(a)

defendant had a legal obligation to keep the sidewalk “fit for the use intended by the parties.” (emphasis added.)

The express language of the statute has a subjective component to it, where the language refers to the parties’ intent as to use. The parties’ intent here, clearly and necessarily, was that the sidewalks would be used to walk on for purposes such as ingress and egress relative to the apartments.

But encompassed within that intent and the parties’ knowledge was the fact that the sidewalks would be used to a great extent by the elderly.

Murphy argued that a jury should decide whether the sidewalk was fit for the use intended by the parties.

And yet another Democratic gubernatorial candidate has opted against running this year. This time, it’s a guy who just entered the fray:

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — State Sen. Hansen Clarke of Detroit was the first Democrat to jump in after Lt. Gov. John Cherry withdrew from the Democratic race for governor. But now Clarke is dropping out as well.

Clarke said Friday in a status update on his Facebook page that he won’t be a candidate for governor this year.

A message was left with his campaign office seeking comment.

The complete list of declared gubernatorial candidates in both parties, per the AP:

REPUBLICANS IN THE RACE:

—Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard of Birmingham

—Attorney General Mike Cox of Livonia

—State Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo County’s Texas Township

—U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland

—Venture capitalist Rick Snyder of Ann Arbor

___

DEMOCRATS IN THE RACE:

—State Sen. Hansen Clarke of Detroit

—State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith of Washtenaw County’s Salem Township

The lack of candidates is probably a good thing for the higher profile prospective candidates as they explore whether they can actually raise the money needed to run their options. This AP article discusses these undeclared Democratic candidates.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The surprising withdrawal of Lt. Gov. John Cherry from the Michigan governor’s race presented a golden opportunity to other Democrats who thought they’d have to wait years to run.

But they don’t have much time to decide if they’re in or out.

Some of the five Republicans in the race are poised to begin running ads in February, giving them the chance to make the first favorable impression on voters. And whichever of the uncommitted Democrats jumps into race first could grab the biggest share of donations and endorsements, leaving latecomers with crumbs.

"You can buy a little bit more time as long as everybody else is still up in the air on this," political strategist Tom Shields of Marketing Resources Group said Thursday. "But when those campaign committees start forming, and people start raising money and getting commitments, that’s when you need to either fish or cut bait."

U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak hears the clock ticking. Although he has a safe congressional seat and powerful committee assignments, the Democrat from Menominee is considering running for governor.

"This isn’t something that presents itself very often," Stupak told The Associated Press. "You have to take a look at it."

He’s heading to Detroit on Friday to meet with party activists and get a better feel for whether he wants to run. At the same time, he is deeply involved in negotiations over the federal health care overhaul bill and language restricting how abortions are covered by insurance.

A run for governor "is appealing, but from a practical point of view, can you do it with this compressed time line we have? Health care compresses it even more," Stupak said. He noted that GOP gubernatorial candidate and fellow congressman Pete Hoekstra faces some of the same constraints, "but he’s at least been out there another year."

Stupak knows his opposition to abortion could prove a hurdle to getting the nomination. The former state trooper also is a gun-rights advocate. But he has spoken with former U.S. Rep. David Bonior, an abortion opponent who ran in the 2002 Democratic governor’s race, and said he’s encouraged so far.

Among the others eyeing the race, University of Michigan Regent Denise Ilitch spent Wednesday evening introducing herself at a Democratic mixer in Grand Rapids after discussing a possible run with White House and Democratic Governors Association officials in Washington the night before.

Although she won a statewide race in 2008 as regent, the lawyer from Bingham Farms isn’t well-known in Democratic circles, despite her family owning sports teams, casinos and the Little Caesar’s pizza chain. She’s working to change that, but could be hampered by a pattern of donating to Republicans as well as Democrats.

The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reports Ilitch gave $2,000 to former President George W. Bush in 2003, the same year she gave $1,000 to Republican U.S. Rep. Candice Miller. Former President George H.W. Bush got $1,000 in 1992 from Ilitch, who gave the Michigan Republican State Committee $1,000 in 2000.

Ilitch also donated $3,300 to 2008 Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton and at least $7,500 over the years to Democrats such as Sens. Debbie Stabenow, Carl Levin and the late Ted Kennedy. The Michigan Democratic State Central Committee received $3,000 between 2005 and 2009.

She did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday to her law office.

Other Democrats considering a run are also on record as donating to Republicans. House Speaker Andy Dillon, who has formed an exploratory committee, gave $1,000 to the Michigan Republican State Committee in 1994, records show.

"We’re going to chalk it up to a youthful indiscretion," Dillon spokesman Dan Mahoney said Thursday.

State Sen. Hansen Clarke of Detroit was the first Democrat to jump in after Cherry dropped out, and Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith has been in the race since last summer. Others looking at getting in are Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, former Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee and Michigan State University Trustee George Perles.

One other potential candidate is Robert Bowman, CEO of Major League Baseball’s Internet operations and state treasurer in the 1980s under then-Gov. James Blanchard. Okemos public relations consultant Bob Kolt said Blanchard and others are talking to Bowman about getting into the race.

Bowman, who has a summer home in Harbor Springs and works in New York City, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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